Galapagos revisits recent setbacks
Biotech company Galapagos will review its development pipeline. After disappointing results in a number of recent tests with potential drugs, this is essential. The company cannot say anything about how much money it intends to spend this year on research and development.
Last year was an “eventful year”, says CEO Ono van der Stolpe. It indicates the approval of filgotinib rheumatoid in the European and Japanese markets. However, the fact that the drug has not been approved in the United States casts a shadow over that. This has also led to a review of a large deal with US pharmaceutical company Gilead.
In 2020, it made significant payments of more than 90 million euros for approvals in Japan and Europe. As a result, the sales volume of the Galápagos reached 530.3 million euros. This was much lower than in 2019 when Galapagos struck the deal with Gilead and received 667 million euros in one go.
Development costs
2020 sales were offset by the fact that the Galápagos spent 523.7 million euros in development costs. Including all other costs, a loss of 311 million euros remained. A year ago, the deal with Gilead put a profit of € 148.7 million on the books.
The Galapagos stock price has increased for a long time since July 2019. Due to the setbacks with filgotinib and the revised deal, the stock price has already fallen significantly. When testing for the pulmonary fibrosis drug was discontinued earlier this month, the stock was again low. From a peak in February of last year of more than 252 euros, the Galapagos share price fell to 69.30 at the close of trading on Thursday. This level is the same in April 2019 before the price was boosted by the deal with Gilead.
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